Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture book review

Calodema, 452: 1-4 (2017)

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Hawkeswood - Book Review of Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture

Book Review: Christina Riggs (2014). Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, Oxford) Arts & Humanities Dictionaries & Reference Trevor J. Hawkeswood*

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ncient Egyptian Art and Architecture: A Very Short Introduction Hawkeswood, T.J. (2017). Book Review: Christina Riggs (2014). Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, Oxford). Calodema, 452: 1-4.

Ancient Egyptian A Architecture: A Ve Introduction

Overview

Description

Christina Riggs Very Short Introductions

Table of Contents

Examines what we consider t and 'Egyptian'

Author Information

Organized by theme to introd Egyptian art

Reading Guide

Looks at how pieces of art ca historical power and the dyna

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Considers how European and ancient Egyptian art have cha

This is a small paperback book of 132 pages with 22 black and white figures, there are no colour Considers the contemporary illustrations. The book provides an introduction to ancient Egyptian art and architecture from about 3200 BC to the Roman era. However, limited examples of Egyptian architecture are illustrated or Egyptian art and architecture discussed but there are certainly a number of artworks which are illustrated, described and Explores the visual themes th discussed in some detail.

Egyptian art

Riggs divides the book into themes and provides examples of art or architecture to develop and Part of the bestselling Very S highlight those themes. These examples are illustrated as black/white photographs or illustrations from previously published books. She stresses what the art works tell us about the dynamics and series - millions of copies sold politics of the ancient Egyptian society and she explains in detail the contemporary relevance of those Egyptian artworks and constructions such as temples and statues. Riggs also outlines how European and Western ideas about ancient Egyptian art have changed over time. She opens the book by explaining what is meant by or what she regards as “ancient”, “Egyptian”, “art” and “architecture”.

Description

From Berlin to Boston, and St Petersburg to Sydney, ancient E of some of the world's greatest museums, while the architectu (Calodema - an International Journal of Biology and Other Sciences) Page 1 pyramids has attracted tourists to Egypt for centuries. But wha architecture mean to the people who first made and used it - a enduring appeal?

One of the interesting things about Koptos is that it w Calodema, 452: 1-4 (2017) Hawkeswood - Book Review of Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture see the small chamber to the rear of the Isis and Geb The first illustration discussed is a most limestonethe statuewords of the God at about would situnusual to deliver ofMin thedated Deity. This orac 3300 BC, which once stood with several others at the predynastic temple at Coptos (these are the one). oracles Koptos did n so-called Colossi of Coptos,famous see photograph right The tradition below). The statue is of headless but hasat a left hand around a hole at the front where a stone penis was inserted! Thehave God Min is usually In a apparently work called Theosophia, we record of an ora portrayed by the Egyptians as exhibiting a very long erect penis, and often he holds onto it as well! Pagan but since it hollowed discusses However, the most unusualEgyptian thing about the statue isoracle, the peculiar oval grooves out atthe unit several places but mainly atscholars the left sidethink of the statue. Thelikely author states that the grooves were Be tha it was a Christian retrofit. gouged out at a later date for healing properties but who really knows? These enigmatic statues ofopinion. oracles at Koptos was well established. require further research in my 1/26/2017

Sekhmet - Wikipedia

temple attendants.[2] Participation in the festival was great, including the priestesses and the population. Historical records tens of thousands attending the festival exist. These findings we made in the temple of Mut because when Thebes rose to greater prominence, Mut absorbed some characteristics of Sekhmet. These temple excavations at Luxor discovered a "porch of drunkenness" built onto the temple by the Pharaoh Hatshepsut, during the height of her twenty-year reign.

In a myth about the end of Ra's rule on the earth, Ra sends Hathor or Sekhmet to destroy mortals who conspired against him. In the myth, Sekhmet's blood-lust was not quelled at the en of battle and led to her destroying almost all of humanity, so Ra poured out beer dyed with red ochre or hematite so that it resembled blood. Mistaking the beer for blood, she became so drunk that she gave up the slaughter and returned peacefully to Ra.[3] The same myth was also described in the prognosis texts of the Calendar of Lucky and Unlucky Days of papyrus Cairo 86637, where the actions of Sekhmet, Horus, Ra and Wadjet were connected to the eclipsing binary Algol.[4]

Sekhmet later was considered to be the mother of Maahes, a deity who appeared during the New Kingdom period. He was seen as a lion prince, the son of the goddess. The late origin of Bust of the Goddess Sakhmet, ca. Maahes in the Egyptian pantheon may be the incorporation of a Left: Granodiorite bust of1390-1352 the Goddess Sekhmet, ca. 1390-1352 BCE. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sekhmet). B.C.E. Granodiorite, Nubian deity of in that culture, arriving during Right: An example ofBrooklyn ColossusMuseum of Coptos, a predynastic form of the God Min. ancient (Source:origin https://isiopolis.com/ 2014/09/07/isis-min/). trade and warfare or even, during a period of domination by Nubia. During the Greek dominance in Egypt, note was made o The second illustration discussed is a headless black granite statue of Kingthat Tanwetamani about 650 to a large a temple for Maahes was an auxiliary facility temple to Sekhmet at Taremu in the delta region BC which was discovered in a pit at Jebel Barkal in the Sudan. The statue shows a somewhat(likely a templ originally), city which the Greeks called Leontopolis, muscular pharaoh with his left leg outstretched ahead offor hisBast right leg and ahis arms bearing clenched where by that time, an enclosure was provided to house lions.

(https://isiopolis.file The so-called Colossus of Koptos…a predynastic fo Koptos

A particular Isiac relic at Koptos seems to have been Herinsays “to the Great IsisGreeks, of the Hair.” fists. The statue was constructed Egypt it butis was probably traded to Goddess, the Sudan by either Romans or Egyptians themselves because of their highly desirable qualities. made “near the hair at Koptos.” Plutarch explains th In popular culture

The third illustration provided in the book needs no introduction as it is the magnificent gold and Death metal band Nile referenced Sekhmet in the title track of https://isiopolis.com/2014/09/07/isis-min/ lapis lazuli funerary mask of the great King Tutankhamen himself, which has illustrated in on their albu their album "Ithyphallic", andbeen in "The Eye Of Ra" countless books on ancient Egypt. However, Riggs also Those provides anthe illustration of the reverse of the Whom Gods Detest. Death metal band Behemoth referenced Sekhmet in the song mask which actually shows most of the hieroglyphs on this part of the mask and which represent "Christgrinding Avenue" on their album The Apostasy. some of the verses from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Most books on ancient Egypt don’t illustrate these hieroglyphs. This artifact has to be one Sekhmet of the greatest the world ever vampires i is one oftreasures the evil female trinity has of demigod author Kevin Given's "Last Rites: The Return of Sebastian seen. The workmanship, especially the hieroglyphs, is absolutely extraordinary. Are there many Vasilis" which is the first novel in the "Karl Vincent: other similar funerary masks still out there under the deep Egyptian sands, awaiting discovery? I do Vampire Hunter" series the other two being the Hebrew Lilith and the sincerely hope so. Hindu Kali. She is also seen in the same author's comic book The warrior goddess Sekhmet, shown with her sun disk and cobra crown from a relief at the Temple of Kom Ombo.

"Karl Vincent: Vampire Hunter" issues 1-6 which adapts the Page 2 novel. She will be played by actress Jasmine Yampierre in the film version from Crisp Film Works.

(Calodema - an International Journal of Biology and Other Sciences)

Sekhmet is used in The 39 Clues book Beyond the Grave and is

and h of the g the

Calodema, 452: 1-4 (2017)


Shabti figures are usually little statues of men which were placed in the tombs of ancient Egyptian people in order to assist them to the afterlife. Some of these shabti figurines are actually huge, like the 400 figurines discovered in 1888 by the famous English egyptologist Flinders Petrie in the tomb of the priest Horudja situated in the Faiyum region of Egypt (Fig. 4). Shabti figurines are normally made from faience which is a mixture of silica (from sand or ground quartz), alkaline soda (natron salt or plant ash) and lime (derived from limestone or sand), which was fired after being formed into as paste and moulded. InDen a temple constructed for pharaoh Amenhotep III, a large number of seated tall statues of the (pharaoh) - Wikipedia goddess Sekhmet (Fig. 5) were discovered (see also typical Sekhmet statue on page 2 of this book review above). In my opinion these statues are spooky and hideous as the Egyptians replaced a human head with that of a lion. Riggs notes that these statues were important to the ancient Egyptians because they represented dead people, especially kings and gods. What remains of a temple of Dendur which was constructed about 15 BC, is now preserved as a primary exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Fig. 6). This was a temple for the Egyptian priests who held massive power only second to that of the pharaoh and who were also scribes who could read and write the hieroglyphs. In essence they were a secret society and the temples were constructed in order to shelter the daily (and nightly!) activities of these shaven headed priests. Riggs tells us that overUdimu, 96% of theDewen ancient population was illiterate.

Den

eriod. to his tributed title the first red and l-Qa'ab granite, as used reign he “MacGregor-Label” Den's tomb Abydos, EA Sandal label from the tomb of King Den datedfrom about 3000 BC from Abydos.in (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Den_(pharaoh) rt ritual 55586 was heldThe next artwork discussed (Fig. 7) is the amazing three coffin set of Djed-djehuty-iwef-ankh (I Pharaoh its most beautiful artwork on the sides and top of the sors. will just call him Djed from here on!) with

outer coffin (sarcophagus). It is a pity that this plate could not have been in colour. Djed lived and starting BC Dynasty) died at Reign Deir el-Bahri during42 the years, 25th Dynasty about c. 7502970 BC. He has(1st not been unwrapped but his skeleton (mummy) has been CT scanned. It would be interesting to review that scan but Riggs does Coregency not provide it and I cannot Merneith find it anywhere on the Internet. Hopefully somebody is writing up a research paper on this fascinating mummy and providing the necessary details!

Predecessor Djet, Merneith Successor

Anedjib


Royal titulary

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Calodema, 452: 1-4 (2017)


The next illustration (Fig. 8) is a 19th Century line drawing of the stela of the ancient Egyptian Irtysen. Irtysen was in his own words, “a craftsman who excels in his art and has a superior level of knowledge”!! The Ancient Egyptians were definitely very sure of themselves as many other hieroglyphic inscriptions show! Fig. 9 is a bizarre sketch on limestone by an ancient draughtsman by the name of Amenhotep about 1100 BC (no relation to the kings of that name!). The sketch portrays Amenhotep praying to the God Thoth, the God of wisdom and writing. (He needs to pray much more as his artwork isn’t that flash!). Riggs moves on to discuss the amazing “smiting scene” which has been incised with a very fine tool on a thin square of hippopotamus ivory (Fig. 12) about 5 cm wide (see also illustration on previous page). The two bottom corners were trimmed off at right angles and a hole pierced in the top right of the label in order to tie it to another product such as sandals, which are carved on the reverse side according to Riggs. However, I cannot find a photograph of the reverse side, so it would be good if Riggs can produce this in future edition for completeness. Further pots (Fig. 10), bizarre statues (Figs. 11, 14, 17), wall paintings (Figs. 13, 16), faience figurines of a hippopotamus (Fig. 15), wooden reliefs (Fig. 18) and mummy masks (Fig. 19) are illustrated and discussed by Riggs. I was fascinated by the illustrations and discussion on the wooden reliefs of the high ranking official Hesy-re who lived around 2600 BC (Fig. 18), as well as the amazing marble statue of Antinous from Tivoli in the 2nd Century AD (Fig. 20) which I had not seen illustrated before. The latter was found in the private villa of the emperor Hadrian. Riggs provides a short chronology of Egypt at the back of the book as well as a reference and further reading sections of useful literature to consult for the student and interested laypersons. Finally there is a short index provided. In my opinion, even though this little book is another “very short introduction”, the author has covered much ground here especially regarding ancient Egyptian art-forms, history and life of the ancient Egyptians. She provides heaps of information and descriptions about so many fascinating artifacts. She has used examples mostly which have not been widely illustrated or described in other popular books previously (as far as I am aware). This book should be a very useful addition to the libraries of students and academics all over the world and should whet the appetite for Egyptologists to further research into Egyptian mysteries such as the statues of the god Min, the statues of masked women and the statues of the lion-headed God Sekhmet. My only real criticism of the book is that the somewhat very interesting illustrations are not in colour. Highly recommended. References: Wikipedia (2017). Accessed 20 January 2017: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sekhmet Wikipedia (2017). Accessed 20 January 2017: https://isiopolis.com/2014/09/07/isis-min/ Wikipedia (2017). Accessed 20 January 2017: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Den_(pharaoh) Date of publication: 26 January 2017 Copyright: Dr Trevor J. Hawkeswood Editor: Dr T.J. Hawkeswood ([email protected]) (Published as hard paper copy edition as well as electronic pdf)


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